CETA: Playing With the Politics of Power

So, after what appeared to be a great act of resistance, Wallonia dropped the bag. A bag that contained the grievances of millions of Europeans, not just those of Wallonia’s farmers and human rights supporters. All hoping, hearts in mouths, that this little French-speaking region of Belgium would hold firm and defy the callous might of corporate hegemony.

But it was not to be, yet. The spin, it seems, must take a further twist; the ball kicked farther down the road. This particular line of resistance lacked the fortitude to bring CETA to its knees; although by winning certain compromises, it has certainly hobbled it, and this may well prove significant in the months ahead.

Just prior to Wallonia’s intervention, we were treated to an extraordinary capitulation by all EU States to towing the line of an unamended status quo. A collective unwillingness to demonstrate any resistance to the further passage of this egregious trading deal.

It’s important to recognize here, just how much of a gap has opened up between the voice of the people and the political institutions which claim to represent them. Close to 3.5 million people had signed petitions demanding the cessation of the secret negotiations that form the basis of this Canada/EU trade deal. Pretty much the same figure as those who spoke out against the better-known TTIP. Yet, this virtually unprecedented number of voices were completely ignored by EU heads of State.

This offers a vivid picture of just how far “solidarity between thieves” operates in the inbred political institutions of the European Union. And of course it’s the same on the other side of the Atlantic.

What we are witnessing is the near complete collapse of the democratic political framework. A framework in which citizens voices were once recognized as the foundation stone of self-governing states. And from citizens’ perspectives, it also represents a rapidly waning love affair with the global neo-liberal free-market ideology, that has for so long been embraced as the center-piece of “progressive economics” in the West.

So what will happen to the CETA deal now?

Its passage towards becoming a permanent legal entity looks to be a rocky one. Already there are a plethora of “TTIP/CETA – free zones” amongst local authorities across Europe. Strong similarities are emerging with the anti-GMO movement’s ‘GMO Free Zones’ – and it’s not surprising – because GMO are exactly what would flood Europe if either TTIP or CETA were signed.

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The secrecy surrounding the discussions is a hallmark of the largely successful resistance Europeans have shown to GMO. Now they aren’t going to tell us what is being negotiated because they know it is unacceptable to a great swathe of European citizens.

Against this backdrop of growing hostility to these “fixed” trading agreements, the CETA deal will now be scrutinized by the European Parliament, and after that it will require ratification by Member State Parliaments, including some ten regional parliamentary authorities. This is significant, as the concessions granted to Wallonia will have set a precedent for other authorities to demand similar concessions, and that could soon make the whole deal unworkable.

Wallonia, in spite of its compromise agreement, has already stated that it will not accept the package in its current form when it returns again, citing the corporate court issues as a major stumbling block.

Even more significant is Belgium’s promise to take the whole corporate court element of CETA/TTIP to the European Court of Justice, in order to get a ruling on its legality within the European constitution. That could be very interesting.

This is no time to let up on citizen pressures to completely scrap this infamous deal. We need to keep our voices raised in support of something very different:

Trading that respects human rights and environmental concerns, for a start.

That supports social concerns and a more equalized distribution of wealth.

That redresses the absurdity of trading similar commodities and foods over thousands of miles when they can be accessed in each country with the minimum of trade miles.

That puts an end to the insistence on ‘global competitiveness’ which is nothing more than trade speak for rendering others bankrupt so that one’s own interests can thrive.

Julian Rose is an early pioneer of UK organic agriculture, a writer, activist and President of The International Coalition to Protect the Polish Countryside. He is author of two acclaimed books:

‘Changing Course for Life’ and ‘In Defence of Life’ which can be purchased by going to www.changingcourseforlife.info Further information about Julian’s unusual life and work is also available on this site.

4 Commentson "CETA: Playing With the Politics of Power"

…..Being Canadian, I’m appalled as I watch the newly minted Prime MInister Justin, scoin of the Trudeau dynasty, emulate the same glazed-eyed hockey consciousness as the average Canuk when wheeling & dealing with the vacuous Unelected EU Super Bureaucrats…. as Justin Trudeau robotically facilitated this odious globalist corporate Trojan Horse & touted it as GOOD for EVERYBODY[sic] …much to the chagrin of Europe’s millions of concern citizens….as he did his tap-dance on the political stage before Wallonia hooked him ignominiously off the stage with their shepherds-crook of dissension.
…The irony here is that the people of Brussels have demonstrated that they will take this to the European Court of Justice to voice their concerns…. & had this trade deal been passed…the globalists tendering this deal could in fact By-Pass this court & turn around & sue sovereign nations for getting in their way from reaping future profits with their very own self-appointed hand picked judges in their own courts!!!…talk about chutzpah!
….The sheer audacity of the ‘behind closed doors’ secrecy of this ‘forked-tongue’ duplicity is repugnant to the vast majority of us…yet as this particular chimeric iteration is forced back into the swamp like a gnarly hungry crocodile…& you know that this reptilian ‘consciousness’ is still lurking in the dank & fetid scum cover of their corporate swamp..always ready to pounce upon it’s intended prey with another legion of liar/lawyers putting a brand new face on the same ol snake head of Medussa …chop off one tentacle… & another appears… inexorably & incrementally as a continuous NWO juggernaut war of attrition is waged for our corporate capitulation & enslavement.
…I’m glad you included the four points in your article pointing out the environmental, social & even distribution of wealth, rather than getting sucked into the whirlpool of hoovering corporate greed …to the exclusion of all ‘Externalities’…Keep up the good fight Julian old friend…cheers

Prime MInister Justin Trudeau is everyone’s prime minister. He is a globalist to the very marrow of his bones. Of course he cannot see the very basic fact that if someone builds a better product people will buy it. The concept of a fair market simply flies over his over his head. He prefers to be a social engineer driving every bit of competitiveness out of the Canadian economy and replaceing it with limited market controlled by business leaders that cannot compete in a real free market. There is a reason Europe is broke. They are not competitive. So we are basically giving up our freedom to improve our position in the world of trade and replacing it with a 3 legged horse. This deal should have never gotten off the ground. It is bad for everyone. Best case scenario is Europe being freed from the EU dictatorship by a total collapse and this deal being not worth the paper it is written on.

Eloquent distillation by Rose acknowledging the steady dismantling of what’s left of representative government in the west. But watch out for the curve balls coming from the Apex Elite Psychopaths and their Global Technocratic Gulag epitomized in their 2030 agenda cloaked in environmentalism language and redistribution of wealth. Caveat emptor the forbidden ‘fruits’ of Neofeudal Digital Slavery.